Exercise and activity trackers are becoming increasingly popular. Even still, when performing various exercises, it can often be difficult to quantify and compare progress over time. Further, advanced testing often requires the use of expensive, specialized equipment that is unfamiliar to the test subject. The problem can be compounded when exercises are performed that utilize traditionally non-quantifiable objects, such as, e.g., elastic bands. People are further not necessarily aware of an amount of force that they are exerting against elastic bands, and therefore prescribing exercises for people using elastic bands is necessarily guesswork. Even professionals cannot accurately determine when exhaustion or fatigue are occurring as accurately as direct measurement of movement.
Thus, a need exists for an exercise tracking system that can quantify exercise parameters for a variety of conventionally available exercise methods.
There is an additional need to assist athletes and persons undergoing physical therapy (e.g., patients) in maintaining proper form during physical activities (e.g., exercise) to prevent injuries. For example, supervision of athletes and patients by a coach, personal trainer, or physical therapist, is not always practical, and can be expensive. Therefore, a need exists for a low-cost monitoring system that can automatically prescribe recommendations to athletes or patients, or allow for remote supervision and analysis by a coach, personal trainer, or physical therapist.
Still further, a need exists in the athletic performance monitoring, coaching, and recruiting fields, to quantify athletic performance. Traditionally, such monitoring has been done by direct observation, recorded observation, or testing using specialized equipment or visual and hand-recording of data. Such mechanisms are prone to human bias and error. Thus, a need exists for an exercise tracking system that can quantify athletic performance for use in coaching and recruiting.